State of Grace
by theonlyxception
Summary: When Dr. Ryan shows up at the office, Travis and Wes must come up with a plan to change things around. An alternative version to to the season finale episode, "Gun!"
1. Assessment

It had been a little over a month since the incident with her fiancé, and when she had referred Wes and Travis to a different therapist. The scenario had never quite been out of the question when it came to the two detectives, but had been mind blowing when it had, and had taken her awhile to question every possibility to what it meant.

Even now that remained one of the most elusive questions in her career, right along with what had caused Wes to pull his gun on Travis. They were partners—almost brothers that squabbled incessantly, who had different personalities but so many similarities. This secret was probably just one of the many that had yet to be unraveled, and was often unsure if she would ever get the chance to find out what they were.

So when she heard Wes' soft spoken voice one Saturday morning, she felt the hope return. He was thanking the cashier for her help and then proceeded to gather his bags to leave; an uncomfortable look on his face as the red headed cashier slipped a card into his bag. She was sure that it was for more romantic reasons, more than anything else.

"Thanks." His voice was strained as he turned and the next person took his place in line. He stopped near a rack of men's clothing and pinched the bridge of his nose, as if he was warding off a major headache.

For the fact alone, she had expected him to exit the store as quickly as possible. Instead he held her gaze momentarily, before a little girl hiding in the next rack over, caught her attention. By the time that she had looked up again, was when she realized that he was gone.

There hadn't enough time to assess how he was doing, but it instantly made her wonder how things were going for both him and Travis: if they were getting along as partners, or if things really were falling apart.

* * *

When Monday rolled around, it seemed like another week had come and gone. Both Wes and Travis were in the break room, filling up on their morning coffee.

"I take it that you had another fun-filled weekend at the hotel?" Travis teased, already taking his first sip of coffee. "Because you look like you did."

Stirring his own coffee, Wes gave him a monotone response. "No."

"No? Please don't say that you're not resorting to one worded answers, because I don't think I can stand the silence from you either."

Wes looked up again. "I was going to say that I hadn't had my morning coffee yet. And I don't get why we didn't just stay out of it." Shrugging, he took a rather small sip; gave a disgusted look as he reconsidered drinking the hot liquid, and put the mug to the side of his desk.

"The guy who was over the case wasn't good enough, so we took the liberty of taking the case." Travis reminded him, falling into his own chair.

"Remind me of the consequences, the next time we have the bright idea to do something stupid." Opening the first of many files that had been stacked on his desk, he began working through all the paperwork. The weekend had been so busy that they now had to devote a day, just to go over files—in between cases.

Travis followed at a slower pace, taking a file and placing it on his own desk. His hand was placed on the file as if he were going to open it, but his eyes continued to wander around the office.

Finally after a few more minutes, he opened the file and leaned back in his chair. "Speaking of bright ideas—here comes one now. I'm pretty certain that is not his happy face."

Wes looked back to see Captain Sutton standing at his door, before turning back to the file at hand. "No, that's his concerned expression. So he's concerned about something."

"Or someone." Tapping the pen against the palm of his hand, Travis continued to gaze across the room and pointed towards Sutton's office." And I think I can guess why."

* * *

With such a long weekend and a rock marriage to boot, Captain Sutton had spent too many hours around the office lately. Nothing should have surprised him by now, but as Dr. Ryan interrupted his Monday Morning, he knew that she meant business.

"Dr. Ryan. What brings you by?" He inquired as the door closed behind her. "Please, sit."

"I'm glad you asked." She gave him a gentle smile, yet it meant so much more. "I was hoping to have a chat with Travis and Wes."

"What did they do now?"

"Now that things have cooled down, I wanted to sit down and talk to them about what happened last month."

Sutton looked at his watch. "They were working on a case this morning, but they should be back by now. I take it there's no invitation for them to return to group therapy." The flash of hope in his eyes couldn't be missed; he knew that two of his finest cops had crossed the line.

"I'm getting the distinct feeling that the new therapy session aren't going very well." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

His expression grew dark. "I shouldn't be say this…but since we're about to go out there, there's something you'll need to know first. You know when I first ordered Wes and Travis to group therapy—things were quite tense between them."

She nodded, recalling the explanation Sutton had given over the phone—as well as the memory of the two cops on their first day of therapy. "Yes, I remember that moment quite nicely."

"Although I'm thankful they're still getting along, Wes has been putting in more hours than I can count. Travis has been his usual self, but hasn't been as perky as he was."

"And you think this has something to do with what happened last month?"

He nodded adamantly. "I'm beginning to think this has everything to do with what happened." And it didn't take rocket science to see that he was very worried.

* * *

A quick glance back over his shoulder, Wes sighed and pulled his vibrating phone out of his pocket. "Whatever you're thinking about doing—don't."

"I wasn't going to." Travis surrendered and gestured towards Sutton's office. "Then why is she here?"

Pocketing the phone, Wes stood from his chair. "That was Jonelle. She has the test results on our latest case. And there could many reasons why she stopped by—but we're not one of them."

"Would you like to bet on that?" As Travis turned back, he noticed Wes was already half up the stairs. He grabbed his own badge and keys blindly; gazing across the room to where Dr. Ryan and Captain Sutton were standing and followed Wes towards the elevators.

When he got there, Wes had his hands shoved into his pockets. "You know, I think you're wrong about why Dr. Ryan is here."

"I never said I didn't agree." Wes defended, impatiently pushing the up button. "I merely stated that her talking to us might not be one of the options."

"Then why did you run away?"

"I didn't run, Travis. There was no reason to stay and gawk at our former therapist." Wes pursed his lips in annoyance. "Besides, what was either of us supposed to say? Sorry that we messed up your life? Oh, wait . . . we already said that—and it didn't work. I'm beginning to think this elevator is broken."

It was working fine earlier." Leaning against the wall, he offered. "Try the other one." Wes did just that, but they soon concluded that neither elevator was working at the moment.

"Does that seem a little mysterious that the elevators suddenly stopped working? I don't remember Sutton saying anything about maintenance work taking place in this building."

"Maybe there's some malfunction with the wiring or something. Take the stairs?"

"Yeah." They both turned to leave. "I was kind of thinking the stairs should have been our first option."

"Except, we always take the elevator." Travis reminded him as they walked down the hall. When they were just about to the door leading to the many levels of stairs, he looked over his shoulder. "And there she is. What are the chances she's going to try and take the elevator?"

He gazed over to see Dr. Ryan rounding them the corner and walked towards them. "Dr. Ryan is a smart woman—I'm sure she'll figure it out." He stopped as he turned and read Travis' expression. "You're thinking about talking to her, aren't you?"

Giving a light shrug, Travis kept his focus on Dr. Ryan. "Someone should warn her that the elevators aren't working."

"You're like a lost puppy—you know that, right?" Wes called out as Travis walked away. He was about to walk in the other direction, when he thought better of it and followed his partner back down the hall.

"Dr. Ryan, we were just talking about you. What brings you by?"

She shot him a curious look. "I was actually hoping you both had a few minutes to talk." Travis exchanged a look with Wes that basically said, _I told you so. _

Wes shoved his hands into his pocket. "Okay. So when you were talking to Captain Sutton—what you were really asking was permission to talk to us."

"Yes, since you are no longer my patients. . . I asked Captain Sutton if I could talk to you privately."

"We were actually about to head down to autopsy." Travis chimed in. "But if you give us ten, we'll meet you in the lounge."

A long pause followed. "Okay, I'll bite. I don't have a session until ten. However, it's critical that we talk." Looking at the clock on the wall, both noticed that it had barely reached eight o'clock in the morning.

"I guess we'll see you then." Travis nodded, and then stopped when he realized that Wes wasn't following.

"I'll be there in a minute. . . " Letting out a frustrated groan, Wes pinched the bridge of his nose. "I find it kind of ironic that we bumped into each other on Saturday . . . and today you just kind of show up. I know that you're not here to welcome us back to group therapy. So I guess that just leaves, why you're here."

She gave him a soft smile, before nodding towards the stairs. "I'm here because of something I saw—something that I haven't seen since you and Travis arrived in my group therapy sessions."

"Okay." That seemed to be a good enough answer for now, as he turned in the opposite direction.

"Are you going to tell me what that was about, or—"

"You know, as much as I love playing twenty questions. . . I have a feeling that we're both going to find out soon enough." They descended down another flight of stairs. "What's the one reason that we got sent to therapy in the first place?"

Travis gave it some thought, before they had descended another level. "Because you pulled your gun. You think that's going to get us back in to therapy?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No."

"We've been dodging telling her about Pac Man, Storm Front—and I'm still not sure why I pulled my gun on you; other than the fact that you were about to go after Crowl. Maybe we can cut a deal with Dr. Ryan and she'll let us back in."

"And here I was thinking that we would never get of therapy sessions with Dr. Van Waal." Travis looked relieved, then hesitant. "So we tell her everything."

"If we want to get back in, we will tell her everything." Wes pulled the door open to the third floor. "Now come on, we wouldn't want to keep the good doctors waiting."

"I guess we wouldn't." Travis muttered as they walked down the hall towards the autopsy room.


	2. Making a Deal

As they were walking back upstairs, the elevator dinged open and a man in a blue suit gave them a nod as they walked by. Both Travis and Wes exchanged a glance. "Just our luck—the elevators are working again."

Travis caught the doors as they were sliding closed. "You really want to get up there, don't you?" Wes inquired. "I'm not finding this any less thrilling than you are. In fact, I'm not sure how we kept doing this for so long."

"Says the person who didn't want to stop and talk to her."

"Now isn't the time to gloat, Travis." Gravity pulled the elevator upwards, and pretty soon they were back on their own floor.

"I'm going to put this on my desk." Holding up paper with the results they had received, Wes began to walk towards the office space. "Why don't you try and find an empty room to talk in."

"You are coming back—"

"Of course I'm coming back. Why wouldn't I? It's not as if this whole thing will disappear if I don't just show up." Wes called over his shoulder as he left.

Travis walked towards the lounge, where Dr. Ryan was checking her phone as he walked down the hall. As soon as she saw him, he immediately put it back in her purse with a confused look on her face. "Where's Wes?"

"He went to put some papers on his desk." Travis reluctantly led her into an empty room.

She nodded, but that didn't ease the feeling that Wes was stalling. "So, I take it that means that the case is going well then?"

"I guess you can say that we're getting there."

Looking quite pleased, she nodded. "Good. From what I've heard from Captain Sutton, it seems like you and Wes are still getting along as partners."

"Yeah. We've been doing well. We've had some pretty tough cases lately—" Running his hand through his hair, Travis sat down in the chair across from her.

She tilted her head to the side. "He also mentioned how busy the two of you have been."

"We've had a lot of late nights here at the office." Travis nodded as the door knob turned. Wes' muffled voice could be heard through the door. "And there he is."

"Nine? Thanks." Wes finished his conversation on the phone, and walked through the door with a smile on his face.

That gave Dr. Ryan incentive to begin."The reason I wanted to talk to you privately, is that I wanted to clear some things up. Both men adjusted in their chairs, physically preparing themselves for what she had in store.

"And we're sorry for what we did." Travis said as he exchanged a look with Wes; not to mention that he looked like he completely agreed.

"Before we get to that—I wanted to clear up what happened, because it's clearly affected you both."

"It's affected you as well." Wes pointed out.

"Yes. . . and I'm dealing with it. The question I want to know… is how you're dealing with it."

"What are we doing?" Wes exchanged a mulling glance with Travis. "We're doing our job—solving cases."

Dr. Ryan nodded a couple times, pressing herself to move forward. "And your sessions with Dr. Van Waal? How are they going?"

Wes rubbed at his chin, while Travis did some thinking of his own. Of course it passed through both of their minds to lie, but even then they both knew by now that she would see right through those lies. They both thought better of those lies—both desperate to gain her trust again.

"Let's just say that Dr. Vanwaal has some pretty interesting methods." Explaining, Wes hoped that she understood what they were getting at.

"In fact yours were more methodical, don't you think?" Travis inquired, looking back and forth from Wes to Dr. Ryan.

"More like sane." Casting his eyes to the ceiling, Wes rubbed at his face tiredly.

"Dr. Van Waal's techniques are much different than mine. But as a therapist. .. you must understand that there are boundaries."

"And we get that now." Travis interrupted her.

Wes added in, hoping that extra measure would help get her to forgive them. "We know it was wrong to stick our noses in your businesses."

Nodding abruptly, she continued. "What the two of you did was very wrong." She paused and her expression softened. "I understand now that you were only trying to protect me, but rest assured—I can take care of myself."

After a few minutes of silence, Wes piped up. "Something just didn't add up when we met your fiance in the office, so when we found out that he was lying—""

"We couldn't let him hurt you." Travis added in helpfully; neither one met her eye when saying that. Instead, they were looking at the other. "And we took the file from right under his nose."

Wes looked on, before snapping out of his own thoughts. "Yeah. Some bright idea that was." His expression grew serious. "But we want to make up for that."

Travis nodded, throwing it all out on the table. "We want to tell you why Captain Sutton sent us to therapy."

"And why I pulled my gun on Travis." Wes added his part in. His expression teetered on uneasiness, but there was a certain burden that seemed to already be lifting off his shoulders as they told her everything. Travis seemed to be a little more at ease as he straightened in his chair.

"Let me get this correct—" Dr. Ryan gazed from one to the other after a few minutes of silence. "You both have been holding onto all of this for the past six months?"

"I don't think we realized how much Pac Man's death had affected us, until we were able to prove that Crowl killed him."

Travis nodded in agreement. "It was basically my word against his, when Crowl told me that he had killed Pac Man."

"Right." Dr. Ryan clasped her hands together. "The good thing is that he is going to be in jail for a long time. So how are the two of you feeling right now?"

"We're good." Travis nodded and looked over at Wes who was nodding as well.

"Yeah. I mean. . . there's nothing better than seeing Pac Man getting justice. He didn't deserve to be killed just because he knew what Crowl was up to." Wes mentioned; a sad tone that couldn't be missed.

"And since we caught Crowl, we both got reinstated and we're both getting accommodations." Travis elaborated, not being able to hold back an accomplished smile.

"They also erased our suspension, that was given to us when we went after him the first time around." Looking just as satisfied as Travis was, Wes placed his hand on the table and caught a glimpse of the time on his watch. "In fact we should probably be getting back. We're supposed to get ready to make a drug bust."

"That what the call was about?" Travis inquired as they stood.

Wes nodded. "Yeah. We're supposed to be there by nine."

"So since you've been reinstated, I take it that means that you're no longer required to come to group therapy." Her calming voice interrupted ]their conversation.

Travis spun back around on his heels. "That's exactly what it means."

"But we were hoping that you'd take us back."

"I'm sorry, but are you asking for a second go-around?" She looked amazed, noticing that their expressions were serious, while they were hoping that she would consider agreeing on the decision.

"I can't believe it, but yes we're asking for a second chance."

It only took a minute for her to come to a conclusion. "Then welcome back guys. I expect you to be at the next group meeting tomorrow."

Hearing that bit of news, Wes took his hand out of his pocket and raised it for a high five from Travis—which he gladly obliged to and expected one back, but Wes quickly slipped his hand back into his pocket.

* * *

Finally got this chapter out after two computer crashes, getting a new computer, a whole lot of life problems and some major writing blocks. Again...sorry for the wait. I think I'm going to end this chapter here. Thanks for reading! Make sure to review!


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